Decorations and Dreams
by starStruck272
Summary: //One-shot// It's Christmas and Seishirou is on the prowl. The Sakura tree is not too happy at being decorated.. //Implied Seishirou x Subaru//


A/N: This one was done last year in December. Not really beta-ed... and was a gift fic for xtwilightzx, my beta and muse.

--------------------------

Pairing: hinted Sei-chan and Subaru?

Rating: T (because of deaths)

Characters: Seishirou and Subaru and the Sakura tree.

Category: Angsty-ish

Warnings: Spoilers for vol 17 onwards. Also characters may be OOC since I am not too familiar with them.

Disclaimer: Not mine and never will be.

---------------------------

/.../ are thoughts and whatnot.  
--------------------------------- 

/…No…./

The eastern wind wafted through the sinewy sakura branches and caused it to rustle.

/Shush now. You don't want to stand out too much do you/

Another gust of wind blew the branches so it seemed like they were clawing at him and it projected the feeling that it was oh-so-thrilled with what he was going to do.

/No./ The point-blank answer didn't even cause a slight pause in Seishirou's advance towards the tree.

/Yes./ He replied just as bluntly. /Now be a good tree and stop moving./

The tree ceased all movement while Seishirou unwrapped the bundle which he had held casually in his arms. As Seishirou reached out to pat the tree for behaving, the tree showed its displeasure by jolting him with a low concentration of power. /No…./

/Yes! I am your master. Obey me./

Seishirou locked his indifferent gaze on the tree and it drooped slightly, afraid of what he would do to it.

/Now behave./

The tree seemed to sigh and slightly lowered it branches for Seishirou's convenience. As he carefully wound the tinsel around the tree so it wouldn't tangle with the tree's sakura, the tree shuddered and sakura petals flew everywhere. Yet no matter how hard it shook, the tinsel would not fall off. The tree tried one last desperate plea.

/Bad……!…... No……!……/

/Too bad./ Seishirou smirked frigidly. /I put super glue on the tinsel so it won't fall off. Maybe I'll take it off in the summer when the glue hardens and cracks./

/ (super glue!) ……Bad/

/Ah well then... I guess you don't want the present I prepared for you? It's been so long since I've given you good quality blood. Oh well, if you insist. Besides…/

The tree quivered at what Seishirou would say.

/…Don't you know it's easier for you, if you're nicely decorated, to catch unsuspecting prey/

The tree seemed to consider what Seishirou had pointed out. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad after all…and it was unwise to push him too far…

It showered Seishirou with sakura petals as a sign of apology and decided to lean back and have a quick nap before its Christmas meal. Sending those messages had not used up more than a tenth of its power, yet it felt a need to be at full power whenever it was dealing with the Sakurazukamori. After all, who knew what was going through his mind and what he could do to it? Even this Sakura tree was not immune to magical fire.

------------------------------------------------

Seishirou leaned underneath the ancient semi-sentient sakura tree, blending in with the shadows, and watched the snow drift through the more sparsely spaced branches. Ueno Park wasn't very crowded that night and people who came were mainly couples who just passed by to get to another destination. They weren't there to admire the scenery or to do goodness-knows-what in the plenty of shadows the park provided with its rare to none street lamps. An unknown teenage girl with her boyfriend passed by the sakura tree and she was being very bubbly and was excitedly hanging onto his arm while pointing at the snow that had begun to fall. The guy chuckled softly at her eagerness and let himself be dragged by the girl and when they passed by the Sakura tree where Seishirou was, they both unconsciously shivered, some instinct feeling that someone was watching them but not knowing who.

As he unconsciously cloaked an illusion around him and left the shadows of the sakura tree, he silently followed the pair with his mismatched eyes with graceful leaps from rooftop to rooftop. He snorted silently as he never understood why people made such a big fuss about the first snow and how pretty and twinkly and white it was. Snow was innocent and pure and it was to be sullied by people that were of the dark. The snow reminded him of Subaru and it was something Seishirou never understood about. Why would he link snow with Subaru? Subaru was nothing more than a thing to be used and thrown away afterwards… He just hadn't gone to claim the debt he was owed yet. He had allowed Subaru to live for the past nine years and every winter, he did not like having to think about Subaru when it snowed and wonder what he could be doing this year and when Subaru would find him. As the pair neared a dark alley where Seishirou could go to work undisturbed, he weaved an illusion over them, causing them to stumble and suddenly finding themselves surrounded by sakura petals in a blackness which went as far as the eye could see. As he caused the pair to become even more disoriented, his thoughts wandered over the fact that no one ever gave him a challenge anymore. Subaru was the only one who could truly make him enjoy himself.

Snow dirtied easily and once it was blackened, it would never turn white again. Even if another layer of snow fell and covered the stains, the appearance may return to being white, but underneath, they were still there and it would not disappear no matter how thick or how deep it snowed. The wounds Seishirou had given Subaru were just like that. Subaru would never be able to get rid of Seishirou no matter how hard he tried to forget or how hard he tried to avoid the feelings and thoughts he had shoved away from his mind for the past nine years. As long as he was the only one on his mind, he would not kill Subaru. Subaru was his and no one would dislodge his place in Subaru's mind.

No one.

As he absentmindedly cracked a vital point in his hand to prove his point, a wailing sound penetrated his thoughts. He glared at the disruption and moved towards her, swiftly dislodged a bone from its proper place and clamped a hand down on the warm pulse, silencing the annoying wail. Not a single drop of blood was spilt and with another flick, he summoned two shikigami to carry the lifeless bundles back to the sakura tree in the park. He was sure that the tree would enjoy the young blood he had given it. After all, the food he had given it lately were cold and practically flung all over the place as he precisely stabbed a hand through the chest, creating a nice little hole, and now here were two perfect and still warm meals he could give it.

How's that for a Christmas gift. Sakura trees needed to be spoilt once in a while to keep it happy.

------------------------------------------------

Subaru sat up quickly, throwing the bed sheets off the bed in the process. He clutched the eye he had recently acquired and moaned softly. He had at least one of Those dreams every night and they were almost becoming a reality for him. He even had these visions when he was not sleeping and it seemed like that Seishirou really had been... possessive of him. Even after his death Seishirou still haunted Subaru's mind, heart and body and he really would never think of anyone else the way he had with Seishirou. The fact that he now had the sakura tree to take care of didn't help matters very much as he still hadn't confronted the tree that he was now the master of it. He doubted the tree would be very happy since they had long memories and when he was young he had wanted to cleanse the tree. Needless to say, he had been beaten back by the Sakura tree's collected and raw power. The tree also brought back bittersweet memories for him as this was where he had first met Seishirou.

He shook his head. He needed to clear his thoughts and confront the tree soon or he would be powerless to do so from all that lack of sleep. A quick glance out the window told him that it was snowing, and pulled on warm clothes, a scarf and another pair of gloves over the mandatory pair he had not taken off even in his sleep, and he picked up several fire and barrier ofudas. It would be better to go prepared when facing a malevolent and sentient tree

As he walked closer and closer to Ueno Park, a feeling of uneasiness settled around him and he fidgeted with his scarf. Something was off with this atmosphere, and the snow was dampening any sound that would have alerted him. /Snow reminded Seishirou of me, huh./ Subaru smiled bitterly. /If I had found him sooner, maybe things wouldn't have been like this…/

As he walked closer to the middle of the park, he was startled to find that the only Sakura tree that was there was decorated with sparkly tinsel. Suddenly, like a flood bursting a dam, he could also feel the Sakura tree emanating sleepy annoyance at being woken up, yet at the same time satisfaction with the metallic smell of blood. Subaru cautiously sent a mental link to the tree.

/Seishirou has… passed you to me. I am your master now./

Subaru could feel the tree eyeing him and measuring his power when he felt a raw blast of power testing his barrier from all sides. The closer Subaru walked to the trunk of the tree, the strong the power came at him and it took nearly all of Subaru's mental strength to push the tree back.

/…Why…/

The tree stopped and showed its acknowledgment of Subaru by showering him in a soft rain of sakura petals mixed with snow. It waited to see how Subaru would act as it could tell he seemed very different from the previous Sakurazukamori. This person did not have the smell of the blood of others.

Subaru smiled cynically again as the tree receded its power and walked towards the smell of blood that he had smelt since he had first encountered the tree. There was something very familiar about the tinsel and the bodies that were near the base of the trunk.

He reached out and turned the both of them so he could see their faces…

  


And the teenage girl and boy couple he had seen from his dream stared back up at him, their bodies still warm, with confusion and pain etched on their faces.

-----------------------------

Erm. Yeah. Nice ending I know. Comment on this please?


End file.
